#52 Ancestors Week 10 - Stormy Weather - Arnold Sargent's Scary Flight

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has a weekly challenge to write the stories of your ancestors. This is week #10 and the suggested theme is STORMY WEATHER. My ancestor this week is ARNOLD SARGENT (1923-2008).

The first thing that came to mind was the first leg of the trip the Ramacher's took in their journey from Germany to the United States. However, I had already relayed that story in week  #6 - So Far Away.  But then I recalled a storm that was much closer in time.  In fact, it involves my Dad, Arnold Sargent (1923-2008).  

He had a hobby that both excited and scared me as a young child.  I grew up in a small Indiana town in the middle of a farming community.  And what was my Dad's hobby - flying. The town had a grass landing strip and there were probably only about four airplanes that were housed in a hangar there.

My Dad had been fascinated with airplanes since he was very young.  He had kept a scrapbook with every article about airplanes that had appeared in the newspaper glued in it. He said he knew all the parts of an airplane before he knew the parts of a car. After graduating from high school he was working for the local newspaper as a type setter. He used the money he earned to take flying lessons.  Here is his story about learning to fly:

"I was going over to Bloomfield next to White River Banks to take lessons.  They were 30 minutes at a time for $3.00.  That was all I could afford and not every Sunday.  I was airborne whenever they announced the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  One of the guys on the ground crew came running out yelling “War, war, war!”  And we didn’t know what had happened because there was no war when we went up.  I had done so well he promised me a solo flight on the following Sunday.  But when I went back, all the planes had no propellers.  They had been confiscated by the government.

 I entered into flight status again on Aug 15, 1955 - almost 15 years later.  After two hours of instruction I made my solo flight; one of the happiest days of my life."

By flight status he is referring to getting his pilot's license. So where does the stormy weather come in?  That happened on January 15, 1956.   

This doesn't seem like much of a storm, especially based on the type of weather reports we have seen this winter.  But the day this "upside down" cold wave hit southern Indiana was the day my Dad and three of his friends had flown to French Lick. They were traveling in two separate planes.  Here's what happened:

The two planes had left Linton for the 60 mile trip to French Lick.  Why they were going there in the middle of January I don't know.  But there was no problem on the trip there. They started their flight home and ran into bad weather about 16 miles out.  It looks like they may have tried at first to go around the storm, since turning around and returning to French Lick would have been closer than going to  Bedford.  My Dad had no problem landing but Mr. Jones became disoriented and wound up father north near Bloomington.

I was only six at the time but I remember my Mom being nervous about the weather and the fact that Dad was not home yet. I also remember when she got the phone call from Dad, she was relieved but still concerned because they didn't know what happened to the second plane.  How did we ever survive before cell phones.  Thankfully everything worked out fine. Dad did have to leave the plane in Bedford for six weeks before he could fly it out.  

Dad's pilot log book has the entries for this trip highighted in yellow.  This is also the plane he was flying at the time.